OHL Writers Draft Eligible Player of the Month for January

Barrie Colts’ Andrei Svechnikov is our draft eligible player of the month for January.

Svechnikov had a dominant offensive performance for the Colts posting 9 goals and 8 assists in 11 games in January. He was held off the score sheet just once, on January 13 versus the North Bay Battalion. Seven of his remaining ten games were multi-point games. He was named the OHL Rookie of the Month for January.

Heading into the season, Svechnikov was a consensus top-two pick for the 2018 National Hockey League draft. More recently, it’s almost assured that Sweden’s Rasmus Dahlin will be the first player selected, while Filip Zadina (Halifax Mooseheads of the QMJHL) is challenging Svechnikov to go second.

Svechnikov missed almost two months with a wrist injury. Prior to his injury, he was second in the Ontario Hockey League with 10 goals in 10 games. Despite playing in 20 fewer games, he still leads all draft eligible players in goals with 23 at the end of January (27 games played) and is among the top 10 in points. He sits second next to fellow draft eligible Serron Noel of the Oshawa Generals in shooting percentage at 22.3% on 23 goals on 103 shots.

Also considered was Mississauga Steelheads’ Ryan McLeod who had 7 goals and 8 assists in 10 games. Evan Bouchard of the London Knights was also given consideration after posting 3 goals and 11 assists in 11 OHL games and tying the NHL/CHL Top Prospects Game record with 4 assists and being named player of the game. Akil Thomas was also considered after posting 3 goals and 14 assists in 12 games.